Painting Stars
by SunshineShal
Summary: Cat's an artist who gets the chance to show some of her artwork at a local gallery. When aliens who are after creativity attack the gallery and the cafe where she works a day later, she meets The Doctor and Clara and realizes that she's right and that there is something out there besides God. Can they show her that she's just as talented as anyone else? (Bad summary, I know.)
1. Chapter 1

**And we have yet another fanfic with an OC written in first person narrative. This one is also set in Indianapolis, and I would like to state that all of the places I mention in this fanfic don't exist here. If they do, it's just coincidence. Anyways, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!**

When I was little, I was always looking at the stars in fascination. I always wondered if there was anything besides God up there. it's sometimes hard to believe that when you're a child though. However, as I got older, I was starting to consider this more and more, especially with everything that had been going on in the world. The news anchors said they were just freak accidents and normal occurrences, but I was doubtful. There's only so much that can be caused by nature. I could never prove it, though, until something happened that proved what I'd always somehow believed: that aliens did exist and all that had happened was caused by aliens. Now I wouldn't have believed it until a certain man in a bow tie showed me.

Sitting on the balcony of my apartment on a summer night, I stared up at the sky and looked at the stars. I was trying to paint it, but so far I only had the night sky down. I was amazed by the fact that even though these stars were light years away and dead, they still shone. Also, staring at the sky also tended to calm me down after a stressful day.

Even though I painted, I was far from being a famous artist and while I sold some of my paintings, I still needed a second job to pay the bills. So, I was working at The Lilac Cafe, which was owned by my older sister, Kelsey and her husband, Jude. It was a successful cafe and I loved working at it. Although, there were days that I was considering just quitting. This was one of those days. It was more crowded than usual because there was a business convention. So needless to say, after dealing with a ton of out of town businessmen and women, I was ready to go home. So, this is what I was doing and this is where my friend and roommate, Lexi found me an hour later. She must have just gotten home from her job as a librarian, because she hadn't been home when I got home, which is why I was out here.

She opened the door and brought out two wine glasses of pink moscato.

"You look tired." She said, handing me a glass.

"You have no idea." I said, taking the glass gratefully and setting it on the table beside me.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, sitting down on one of the other chair.

"Trying to paint the sky, but it's not working so well." I said, looking back at my painting. "I keep getting distracted by the stars."

"They are really pretty." She sighed, snuggling up into one of the blankets that was out here.

"Yeah." I said. I put down my paint brushes and snuggled into the other one that I had. We laid in the chairs and stared up at the sky for a long while. It was silent, except for the crickets and the hoot owls.

"Hey Lexi?" I asked, breaking the silence?

"Yeah." She said, sleepily.

"Do you ever wonder if there's life up there?"

"Like aliens?"

"Yeah."

"It's possible. I mean, I haven't seen anything physically, but it could be."

"I mean, if we can believe in God without seeing him, what's to say we can't believe that there's something else out there, right?"

"I guess. Why the sudden interest?"

"I was just looking at the stars and it got me thinking, maybe there's something more out there."

"I can see that it helped you with your painting."

"Shut up." I said, hitting her. I looked at my phone. "Ughhh, I should get to bed." I said, getting up. "You gonna come inside with me?" I asked her.

"Nah. I think I'm gonna stay out here a while longer." She said, snuggling deeper in her blanket. "It's nice out here."

"Ok. Night." I said, heading inside. She waved at me and I got ready for bed and then went to sleep.

The next day started out like any other day. The normal customers coming in and getting their drinks and breakfasts. It wasn't until around 1, that it got a bit strange. I was cleaning the counter off when I saw a man and a woman walk up. I observed them as they walked in. They were new customers, I could tell. I'd never seen them in here before.

The woman looked fairly normal. She had straight black hair and was wearing a black jacket over a cute light blue dress with black tights and combat boots. She looked to be around 27, a few years older than I was. The man, however was one of the most interestingly dressed guys I'd ever seen. He was fairly young, maybe around the same age, but he was dressed oddly. He had on a purple frock coat over what seemed to be a lavender button up shirt, which was under a darker lavender waistcoat with what seemed to be some type of gold fob watch attached to it. He was also wearing short black pants with brown boots. Oh, and I forgot to mention the purple bow tie. Yes, he was wearing a bow tie.

Both of them were arguing good naturally about something I didn't understand, but from their accents, it seemed like they were from England. Briefly, I wondered what they were doing here. Indianapolis wasn't small, but there wasn't anything going on here right now, but maybe they just felt like visiting here for fun. When I saw them walking up to the counter, I stopped cleaning the counters and put on my ready winning smile.

"Hi! Welcome to the Lilac Cafe. What can I get you guys?" I asked, cheerfully.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hi! Welcome to The Lilac Cafe. What can I get you guys?" I asked. .

"I'll have a peppermint tea with milk and 2 scoops of sugar." She said, grabbing her waller from her purse.

"Ok." I said, typing it into the cash register. "And you, sir?" I asked the man. He wasn't paying attention, though. He was looking around at the paintings at the wall. Most of those were paintings I'd made for cafe. I didn't think they were that amazing, but he seemed to be very interested in them. So interested, that the woman had to nudge him.

"Oi!" She said, annoyed. "She's trying to take your order." I snorted silently. Clearly this happened often.

The man turned back to the counter. "Right!" He said, clapping his hands together. "I'll take a cup of earl grey with a bit of lemon and oh, 5 scoops of sugar." He said, cheerfully. I stared at him for a second. That was a ton of sugar. How many people actually needed that much sugar in any beverage? I composed myself and typed that into the cash register. "Ok." I said. "That'll be $3.30." The man put his hands into his pockets and came up empty. He looked at the woman apologetically.

The woman sighed. "Fine." She said. "I'll pay." She handed me the money.

"Is this to go or for here?" I asked, grabbing two cups.

"To go." The man said. "Lots to do today!."

"Ok. What's your name?" I asked the woman, grabbing a permanent marker.

"Clara." She replied.

"What about yours?" I asked the man.

"The Doctor." He replied matter-of-factly.

"Ok, um Doctor who?"

"Just The Doctor."

"Ok, then." I said, writing it on the cup, wondering why someone would just go by the name "The Doctor."

"So, are you doing some sight seeing?" I asked, making their teas.

"You could say that." The Doctor said, winking at me. This was turning out to be an odd day. I handed them their drinks and watched as they walked over to counter where we had all the extra goodies for drinks. I watched in confusion and intrigue as The Doctor added milk, cinnamon, chocolate powder, and a packet of honey to his tea. Clara looked at him with a "Really?" look and shook her head. As they walked out, I shook my head and went back to cleaning the counters. As I finished up, I saw my sister Kelsey look at them with an odd expression on her face

"So, what's up with the oddly dressed man?" She asked as she walked in.

"I have no idea." I said. "The girl seemed normal enough, but he just seemed really eccentric."

"Really?" She asked, walking behind the counter and pouring herself a cup of coffee. "Tell me more."

"Well, he ordered a cup of earl grey tea with lemon and 5 scoops of sugar, no joke and then he proceeds to put in milk, cinnamon, and chocolate powder." I said, enjoying the wide eyed look on her face as I told her.

"Seriously?!" She asked cracking up.

"No joke!." I said. "It was so odd. But who am I to judge?"

She nodded her head in agreement. "True." she said, "You've always been an odd one."

"Yeah, true." I said. "I think they're from England."

"Interesting." She said.

I nodded my head.

"I came in here to tell you something, but now I've forgotten." She said, cocking her head. "Oh! Now I remember. I have some good news for you."

"Really? Do tell."

"Ok. So before you came in today, a woman came in to the cafe and commented on your paintings. She said that they were really great."

"Really?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Don't look so surprised. You're a great artist." I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't think I was horrible, but I didn't think I was the best. "Anyways," she continued, "She said she owns a gallery and they're having an show featuring up and coming artists in a few days. I told her that those paintings were done by you. She said that she'd be interested in featuring some paintings by you You, just need to send them to the gallery."

I looked at her in shock. "Are you-are you serious?!" I asked, still staring at her.

"Totally 100% serious." She said, grinning.

"I can't believe it!" I practically screamed. I hugged her. "I can't believe you'd do this for me!"

"As much as I love you working here, I know this is your dream and if this is something that's in the right direction, then I want you to be happy." She said, hugging me back.

"Do you have the address?" I asked, a few minutes later.

"Actually, they gave me the phone number of the courier service. You just call them and they'll pick them up."

"I can't believe this." I said. "This could help start my career as a painter." I said, grinning. I had a few pieces in mind, especially that one that I was working on the night before, if I could get it finished.

"You deserve this." Kelsey said. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you so much!" I said.

"Just remember who helped you start out once you become a famous artist." She said, jokingly.

"Oh, trust me. I won't." I said, seeing another customer and turning around.

That night as I got home, I told Lexi all about what happened and she was equally as happy for me. She opened up a bottle of $2 champagne and we toasted to my potential success. After that, I went outside and set up my easels and paints and paintbrushes and set to painting. A few hours later, I was so tired, but had finished it. I decided to call the courier service tomorrow to pick up the paintings. The minute my head hit the pillow, I was asleep. I didn't realize that in a few day, my life would change completely. I also didn't realize that I'd ever see The Doctor or Clara again, but I was wrong, so so wrong.

**I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I had a few things I needed to think about for this one. But, here it is. I would also like to give credit to my sister for giving me the idea of 11 putting the other things in his tea. She reminded me that he does like to experiment with things, so it's perfect. Enjoy and hopefully I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow, if the DSL in our house comes back. I was typing this chapter in a starbucks. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, so looks like I will be able to post chapters without the internetz. My personal hotspot is on my phone right now, which means I can connect to my computer from that. We'll see if I decide to do this for the rest of the time until Monday when we get a new box. Basically, we had to re sign up for AT&amp;T internet, but now we'll be getting uverse internet. However, like I said, that isn't coming until Monday or Tuesday, so this may be the last chapter until then. I'm not sure yet, but I'm warning you all that if you don't see a chapter from me for a few days, that's why. I'll probably be typing the chapters up, though. Anyways, enjoy this chapter.**

The next morning I woke up feeling inspired to paint another picture. Maybe it was the fact that I was getting closer to being a successful artist, but I got up earlier than I normally did to paint the sunrise. I put on my old shorts and a t-shirt that I used for this occasion and padded out to the balcony to paint. As I was paiting, I saw something fly across the sky. My first thought was a shooting star, but why would there be a shooting star in the morning? My second thought was that it was a plane or even a bird. I didn't end up painting it in.

After I'd let it dry a while, I called the courier service to come pick them up. My sister must have given the woman who was in charge of the gallery my number, because an hour after they'd taken the paintings, my cell rang.

"Hello?" I asked

"Hello. Is this Cat Barton?" An unfamiliar female voice asked me.

"Yes it is. Who may I ask is calling?"

"This is Martina VanCamp. From the Shumaker Art Gallery." The woman continued.

"Oh right!" I said. "I wanted to thank you for giving me this opportunity."

"That's why I'm calling." Martina, continued, "We received your paintings and I have to say, this is some of the best work I've seen."

"Oh, thank you." I said, blushing a bit. At that moment, Lexi came out of her room.

"Who is that?" She whispered when she saw me on the phone.

I cupped my hand around my phone so Martina wouldn't hear me talking to Lexi. "The woman from the art gallery." I whispered back. "She said it's some of the best work she's seen." Lexi gave me a grin and a thumbs up and went into the kitchen to make some breakfast.

"Anyways," Martina continued, unaware that Lexi and I had just had a conversation, "I wanted to give you details on the show. It's at 7:00 on Friday night, except we'd like you to be there an hour earlier. It's also black tie, so wear something fancy."

"I will do that." I said. "Thank you for the information."

"You're very welcome. Have a nice day and we'll see you at 6 tomorrow."

"You too. Goodbye."

I hung up just as Lexi brought out 2 cups of coffee.

"I'm going to be in a show!" I yelled.

"I'm so proud of you." Lexi said, after we jumped up and down. "This could be your big break!"

"I know! Oh, she also said that I could invite a few guests, so I'm bringing you, Kelsey, since she's the one who did this for me, and Jude."

"Aww. That's so sweet." She said.

"Well, you guys have alwasy supported me, and since my parents are out of town, you guys were the best options."

"This is black tie, right?" Lexi asked.

"Yeah... Crap! I don't have anything like that. I need to go shopping today. Good thing I have the day off."

"You're going to need some help."

"Wanna come with me? You have the day off as well, don't you"

"Yeah. Let's get ready and then go shopping."

A few hours and several cups of coffee later, I had my dress. It was a sleeveless mint green dress with an empire waist. I had found some beautiful crushed velvet lavender flats to go with it. I was not going to subject my feet to heels. I also had a silver necklace and bracelet from my sister's wedding that would go perfect with the dress.

"That's going to look amazing." Lexi said.

"Ya think?"

"Oh yeah." She said, touching it. "At least you'll look like a girl.

"Shut up!" I said, hitting her with a pillow.

The next day, I had to go to work, however, I wanted to give myself enough time to get ready. As I looked at the clock, I realized it was about 3:30.

"Hey, Kelse," I called out to her.

"Yeah." She yelled back from the storage closet where she was getting some more to go cups.

"I have to leave to get ready."

"Ok. 7:00, right?"

"Yup."

"Ok, see you then."

"Oh what's at 7?" One of our regulars, Alison asked, as she came to the counter.

"I'm in an art show." I said, walking out from behind the counter.

"Oh that's so exciting!" She said, as one of the other baristas took her order. "Good luck!"

"Thanks!" I called out, as I walked out the door.

A couple of hours later, I was ready to leave. Lexi had done my hair in some complicated updo, and I had a clutch.

"7, right?" Lexi asked as I grabbed my keys and started to walk out the door.

"Yup. 7." I replied

"Awesome! Can't wait to see your art." She called to me as I walked out the apartment.

I arrived there at 6 and was ushered into the gallery by a doorman. It was huge. I could see the other artists by their own paintings. As I was walking to my own paintings, I saw a woman hurrying towards me. She had short, brown hair and black glasses and was wearing a pantsuit. I assumed this to be Martina.

"You must be Cat!" She said, reaching out to shake my hand. I shook it.

"That's me." I said, smiling politely. She seemed nice enough, but there was something that I couldn't quite place about her. I shook it away, however.

"Great. I see you've found your area." She said, walking towards the paintings. "Just make sure if they're all to your liking and if you want any moved, just let me know."

"They're perfect. Thank you so much for this opportunity."

"You're quite welcome. Like I told your sister, you have amazing talent." She said, waving as she walked to one of the other artists.

An hour and a half later, the party was in full swing. I'd already gotten many comments on my work and someone had already bought one. Lexi came over after talking to one of the other artists, a very attractive guy. She was smitten already.

"I can't believe how many amazing artists are here!" She exclaimed.

"I know! I feel out of my element." I said, sipping my appletini.

"Why? You're just as good as any of the other artists here." She said. "And someone's already bought one of your pieces, so that has to count for something."

"I guess." I said looking around. My eyes landed on 2 familiar people and I gasped.

"Lexi!" I whispered. "Look over there!"

'Wha?" She asked, turning to where I was pointing. 'Who are they?"

"Those are the 2 people I was telling you about a couple of days ago!"

"Wait, the ones from England?!" She said, her eyes wide. I nodded my head."You were right about his outfit."

'But what are they doing here?" I wondered out loud.

"Maybe they wanted to see what all the hype was about."

"Maybe." I said, glancing at them. Was it coincidence that I'd seen them twice, or was there more too it? I was about to get my answer soon.


	4. Author's Note

I probably didn't need to make a note for this, but oh well. I'm just letting you all know that I probably won't be posting until Monday or Tuesday due to the fact that:

A: we don't have internet right now and aren't getting it until we get a new internet set-up on Monday or Tuesday so, I'm currently typing this on my phone.

B: We're celebrating Easter with my mom's side tomorrow, and I'm not sure when we'll be back and since Sunday's Easter, well we'll probably be doing something.

So, there you are. But, I will try to have the next one up when I have internet.

See ya all in a few days!


	5. Chapter 4

**HAPPY EASTER! so, I decided I could just type this chapter in my notes app on my phone and then post it. So, here is chapter 4! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. **

** It was odd that they were there, of all the places to explore, why would they come to an art gallery for an art show? I asked Lexi that.**

**"Maybe they just like art." She said, shrugging her shoulders.**

**"You do have a point, but I wonder how they heard of this art show." I said.**

**"Who knows. Meanwhile, I think the attractive art dude is staring at me. I'm going to go talk to him." **

**I giggled. "You do that." I said. She waved at me as she walked towards him and started to flirt. I shook my head. Of course she'd find someone to talk to even at an art show. **

**I stared at The Doctor and Clara curiously for a little bit, until I was interrupted by a few more people. I thanked them politely as they oohed and ahhed at my paintings and thanked those who bought my paintings, but kept my eyes on them as they wandered around the gallery. **

**I saw them coming towards me and quickly averted my eyes back to another couple who were admiring the painting I'd done of the sunrise.**

**"...love the colors of the sunrise." The wife was saying as I tuned back into the conversation. "I can see you really brought out the brilliance of the sunrise."**

**"Thank you." I said, smiling at her. "I wanted to capture the nature of the piece"**

**"Well you certainly did that." The husband said. "I think you may have a career here, young lady." I thanked them and they both shook my hand and walked away. **

**When I turned to grab a well needed hor d'oeuvre from a passing waiter, I felt a tapping on my shoulder and a "Hello!" that almost made me jump. I still had my hand on my heart, and must have had some type of expression on my face, because he seemed to be concerned. **

**"Are you alright?" He asked in a concerned voice.**

**"Oh yeah." I said, removing my hand from my chest and composing myself. "You just startled me a bit."**

**"Sorry about that." Clara said. "We didn't mean to scare you. We just came over to say that your artwork is really great"**

**"Right!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Really bright and vivid colors. Lots of colors"**

**"Uh, thanks." I said, confused. "So, what are you two doing here? If you don't mind me asking." **

**"We're art critics! See?" The Doctor said, pulling out something from his pocket. He opened it up to reveal a blank piece of paper. **

**I raised my eyebrow a bit, but decided to go along with it. They clearly weren't art critics, but something was telling me that they weren't bad either. **

**"Oh! Well thanks for coming to review my pieces." I said, grinning. **

**"Doctor, we should go look at the other pieces" Clara reminded him.**

**"Oh right! Well, Goodbye, then!" He said, waving at me.**

**I waved back, still confused. Who were they? Suddenly, the ground started to shake and the lights started to flicker. Around me, I could see frightened faces. Exclamations of "What the h*** is going on and "is it an earthquake?!" could be heard. I tried to find Kelsey and Lexi, trying to stay as calm as I could, but it wasn't working. I was terrified. I found them huddled by a statue. **

**"Does anyone have any idea what's going on?" I asked them.**

**"I don't think so." Kelsey said in a shaky voice. **

**"It feels like an earthquake." Lexi said, wide eyed, "but when I went to look outside, the ground was completely still. **

**"Ok, this is seriously freaking me out." I said. **

**"Uh well. I think we just got out answer. " Kelsey said, pointing to the ground. Sure enough, we could see several gray balls rising from the ground. As they rose up, each ball started to shape into a gray female form. They seemed to be cackling. **

**"What the..." Lexi muttered.**

**"What are they?!l" I whispered in fear. **


	6. Chapter 5

Chpt 5

The room erupted in panic and chaos as everyone tried to run towards the exit. The gray looking women were still cackling as they flew around.

"That's it. We're done for." I said, panicked. "We're all going to die!"

"I'm way too young to die!" Lexi screamed. "You and I are only 24! There's so much we haven't done!"

"Excuse me?! There's so much you guys haven't done?!" Kelsey said, looking at us. "Jude and I just got married! We haven't even had a baby yet!"

We watched in fear as the gray women flew around. Except, I noticed something odd.

"Hang on." I said, "Have you guys noticed that they're not going after the people?"

"You're right!" Kelsey said. "It looks like they're going after the paintings."

"But what would they need with the paintings.?" Lexi wondered.

Sure enough, we saw each one grab a painting from the wall and fly away with it. Eventually, they disappeared back into the floor. During all of this commotion, I noted that Martina was conspicuously absent. I shook my head. Something odd was definitely going on.

Eventually, everyone stopped running and terror was replaced by confusion. Kelsey, Lexi, and I came out from behind the statue.

"This is a mess!" One of the other artists exclaimed. "What happened to the paintings.

"That's it. I'm never having my artwork displayed like this again, if weird gray ladies are going to steal them." Another one grumbled as they walked out.

Obviously, I was crushed. All that hard work and for what? For it to be stolen by creatures I didn't even know about and what they were.

"I can't believe they just stole all of that work." I said.

"And yet, no one else seems concerned about what actually stole it?" Lexi asked. She did have a point. After the actual stealing, the panic had subsided. Yes, there was grumbling, but it was almost like it had never happened. They were all walking out.

"You'd think they'd be more concerned about paintings being stolen, especially since some of them paid for the paintings and also, they were stolen by whatever those things were." Kelsey said, looking around at the now empty gallery.

"Honestly, I'm wondering what they were." I said. "They almost looked like ghosts, but I know they weren't."

"But what are they? Lexi asked. "We've never seen them before."

"Well clearly, they're some type of monster." I said. "Hang on, did I just say they were some type of monster with a straight face?" They nodded. "Ok, well after seeing that I've concluded that this life is no longer normal."

I looked around, but everyone had left. Or, at least I thought everyone had left.

"Maybe we should just leave too." I sighed. There wasn't any use staying here.

"I'm sorry, Cat. I know you were looking forward to this." Kelsey said, apologetically.

"It's ok. It's not your fault." I said. I was going to say more, but got distracted. I saw The Doctor with what looked to be an odd silver tube shaped object with a green tip. He was running all over the place and seemed to be using it to scan around.

I started to run after him and Clara, with Kelsey and Lexi behind me, but they'd were already running outside.

"Wait! DOCTOR!" I yelled, running outside, but they were already gone. I stopped running.

"What? Where did they go?" I asked, catching my breath and looking around as Kelsey and Lexi caught up

to me. Somewhere around here, we could hear a faint vroop vroop sound.

The next morning, I woke up in a cold sweat. I kept replaying what happened in my head over and over again and tried to make sense of everything, but nothing was making sense to me. I tried to get back to sleep, but gave up. I padded to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and noticed that Lexi was already up and had 2 cups waiting.

"Long night?" She asked as I made myself some breakfast and practically chugged my coffee and proceeded to pour another cup and chug that one.

"You have no idea. I kept replaying it over and over"

"You could always go to the police."

"And tell them what? 'Oh yeah. By the way, officer. My paintings were stolen by floating gray women who cackled.' I'm sure THAT would go over well."

"Ok, fine. You have a point."

"I guess I'll just go to work and try to get it out of my mind." I said, getting up and heading to my room to get ready.

A few hours later, I had pretty much gotten it out of my mind. Work again was fairly normal and fairly boring. Until it wasn't.

I was serving someone their drink when the lights started flickering. I started to panic a bit but reassured the customers that we just needed to get them fixed. Then, the floors started shaking. At this point, people were starting to get a little bit worried. And now you know where this story is headed. They came up from the floors again, cackling. Everyone was in pure panic.

"Everyone, get out now!" I yelled as loudly as I could. They obeyed me and ran out of the cafe. I grabbed a chair and tried to hit one of the women, but she cackled and disappeared through one of the walls with a painting.

I tried to get the others but tripped over an overturned chair and twisted my ankle. I crawled behind the counter, and prayed that something would happen. Suddenly, I heard the door open and an odd screeching sound. The women yelped and disappeared, but most of the paintings were still there. I got up gingerly, as to not aggravate my ankle even more and limped out from behind the counter to see what had scared them off. For some reason, I wasn't that surprised when I saw The Doctor and Clara standing there. They seemed to show up a lot lately.

"Wha- how did you get them to leave?" I asked, staring at them.

"With this." The Doctor said grinning, as he held up the same silver tube object."

"And that would be what, exactly?"

"Sonic screwdriver."

"Ok then." I said, staring at him. I winced a bit from the pain and sat down on one of the chairs, putting up my foot on another chair. Examining it, I noticed that it was pretty swollen.

"Are you ok?" Clara asked with concern.

"Uh, not really. I twisted my ankle when I was trying to deal with those things." I said, trying to rub it, but even that wasn't helping. "I mean, if either of you have an ankle wrap that I could use to wrap it up, that would be great."

"No. But I have something better than that." The Doctor said, walking over to me.

"You know, you really don't have to do that." I protested. I got and started standing, but a second later, I sat back down again. "Ok. You know what? On second thought, I do need help."

"Great! Clara, get on this side and I'll get on the other side and we'll help her up." I held on to both of their shoulders as they helped me up and continued to do so as we went outside. We stopped at an odd blue box with "Police Public Call Box" written on the top. In normal circumstances, I probably would have been concerned, but I was in too much pain to care.

The Doctor got out a key, unlocked it and opened the door. As we went in, I forgot all about my pain.

"Hooooly crap!" I said, looking around. "This is freakin' huge!"


	7. Chapter 6

This place (whatever it was) was something I'd never even seen before, literally. First of all, it was bigger on the inside. I honestly didn't know how this could even fit in a box that small.

Secondly, it was the oddest room I'd ever seen. It looked almost like a really advanced control room you'd see in a futuristic sci-fi movie. The console area (at least I was assuming it to be a console area) was metal and full of buttons. At the very top there were 2 tiers of round metal circles with odd circular etchings around each of them.

"So. What do you think?" The Doctor asked, watching my expression.

"I think... I think I have a lot of questions that I would really like answered, but I'd also really like my ankle taken care of." I said, wincing, suddenly remembering the pain I was in. "If there even is a place that I can sit." I said, looking around.

"Well, maybe not in here." Clara admitted. "But we could probably go to the med bay. Right, Doctor?"

"Right!" He said. "Come on, then!"

They then proceeded to help me down a flight of stairs. During this process, I was wondering how big this place was; not to mention I still wanted to know what it was. We eventually entered a room that I assumed was the med bay. It looked similar to a doctor's office, which I guess made some sense.

They eased me down onto a a chair and propped my foot up on an ottoman. It was surprisingly very comfortable and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Ok. I think now would be the time to put on that wrap." I said, groaning a bit.

"Actually, I have something better than that. Hang on." The Doctor said, running to a cabinet. I watched with confusion as he grabbed a tube of something and came back. He gently rubbed it on my swollen ankle.

"That should do it" he said, capping it up and putting it back in the cabinet. I stared in surprise as the swelling subsided immediately and I could move my ankle. I looked up and him and then back down at my ankle.

"What? How? Huh?!" I said, very very confused. "What is that?!" Even Clara seemed a little surprised that my ankle had healed that fast

"Peruska salve." The Doctor said like it was no big deal. "From the Peruska plant. Very high healing properties."

"No kidding." I muttered, looking back down at my ankle. "Wait... Did you just say a Peruska plant? I've never even heard of that plant."

"That's because it's not from earth. It's from the planet Lavaren."

"I'm sorry. Did you just say it's from another planet?!" I said, looking at him in shock. "Ok. You need to explain some things to me. Like the fact that the last 2 times the places that I've been in have been attacked by weird gray looking women, you two have been there. And what this place is." I said pointing all around me. " I mean, the fact that it's bigger on the inside is one thing, but it almost looks like the inside of a spaceship from a sci-fi movie. Oh and by the way. That paper that you showed me was blank. So, I know for a fact that you're not art critics. So. Who are you?!" I finished. Granted, I would have taken any answer at this point, except that the answer I was given was one I was not expecting at all.

"Well you're right about 2 things. This is a spaceship and Clara and I aren't art critics." He said, throughly enjoying the changing of expressions on my face.

"What?! This is a spaceship?!" I asked in shock.

He nodded. "The TARDIS." He said, as if I would actually know what that meant.

"The what now?"

"TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"Oh." I said quietly. "So, by that, I'm assuming you're not uh, human and you're um an alien?"

He nodded again. "Time Lord, but yes. I'm not human."

"What about you?" I asked turning around to Clara.

"I'm human." She said. "I just travel with him."

"Ok then." I said, trying to wrap my head around this new realization I'd just discovered; like the fact that I was right. That there was something other than humans and God out there.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"I just need a little bit of time to take it all in." I said, now calmer than I was. "So does that mean that those creatures are actually aliens?"

"Yep. Although I'm not sure where they're from. There are a few places where they could be from."

"So you're basically saying that you don't know who these aliens are?" I asked

"Nope. But I have a plan"

I looked at Clara. "Does he really have a plan?" I asked her. For some reason he seemed like the kind of person (or alien) who just winged it.

"Probably not." She said "He normally doesn't in these situations."

"Oi! I'll have you know I have an excellent plan!" He said, offended when he saw us giggling.

"Sure you do, Doctor." I said. "I can tell you that they apparently like paintings, if that helps."

"I've narrowed it down to a few planets." He said, as we followed him to the main room. "Just which one, I'm not sure of."

I was finding out a few things that still didn't make sense, but I needed to learn to accept them if I was going to survive.


	8. Chapter 7

**Well, my internet is finally back, which is great! Anyways, thanks for all the reviews and follows. I think it's getting good. And it'll get so much better, I promise. **

I followed The Doctor and Clara out of the TARDIS and into the bright sunshine and back to the cafe. There were so many things going through my head, like trying to come to grips with the fact that I'd actually come face to face with aliens.

"Are you ok?" Clara asked, noticing my pensive expression as we followed behind The Doctor.

"I'm fine." I said. "I mean, it is new for me."

"It can be a bit overwhelming." Clara admitted. "I mean, finding out about aliens is one thing, but finding out that The Doctor's an alien, that can be a bit overwhelming."

"Yeah. That's just... I don't even know."

"Eventually it starts to become more normal."

"Really?" I asked, giving her a look."

"Well, normal for what it actually is." She said, giving a small smile.

"Oi! You two!" The Doctor called to us. "Come on!"

"A little bit impatient, huh?" I whispered to Clara

She nodded. "He's like a little kid." She whispered back. We both giggled a little bit. Luckily, The Doctor didn't hear us.

We got back to the cafe, still in disarray. We were starting to put the chair back up when Kelsey walked in.

"What happened in here?!" She asked, looking around. Her eyes strayed to the empty walls and I knew that she knew.

"No." She said in shock. "These creatures did this?!"

"Yeah... Except they're, uh aliens." I said, waiting for her reaction. Sure enough, I could see her face changing to confusion.

"Aliens?" She asked. "Wait... How do you know that?"

"Yeah... That would be because of him." I said, pointing to The Doctor. He grinned ad waved.

"Ok. I don't even want to know how you know that, but what exactly are they doing?" She asked him.

"Ah. Well, I haven't quite figured that out yet." He said.

Kelsey sighed. "Well that's just great." She said, shaking her head and then looked at me again. "By the way, I talked to Martina and she said she was extremely sorry and that she wanted to invite you to another show." There it was again. That weird feeling that I got the first time when I talked to this woman. I shook it off.

"I think I'm going to stay away from art shows for a while." I said, putting a chair upright.

"Understandable." She said. "Can you finish cleaning up? I'm going to close early for obvious reasons."

"Yup. Already on it."

"Thanks." She hugged me and walked back out.

"Well, I guess that's that." I said, shaking my head. "Although I don't even know where to start with any of this alien stuff. Do you have any ideas, Doctor?" I turned toward him only to notice that he was quiet and had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Doctor?" Clara asked him.

He seemed to come out of his funk. "Right! sorry! Did your sister say something about a woman named Martina?"

"Yeah. She's the woman who co-owns the gallery." I said. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Wait... Are you implying that she could be one of the aliens?" Clara asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"That actually makes sense." I said. "Because the first few times I talked to her, I kept getting this odd spooky feeling. And then she was absent from the gallery when everything went crazy."

"Well, I think that gives me enough proof." The Doctor said. He grinned. "I think we need to give her a little visit."


	9. Chapter 8

**I'm so sorry for not posting for a few days. I started to type this chapter and then when I went back to it, I hated how it looked so I started to type it again. And I'd won a party at a bar/dance club (I'm not sure what you'd call it) and booked it for last night, so I had that and if you know me at all, you know that it's very rare for me to go out. It's because I'm an introvert. Anyways, I didn't get back until around 11:30 or so and at that point I was kind of tired and just ended up finishing a movie in my room. I probably didn't need to tell you this. Anyways, Hopefully this chapter isn't too crappy. I feel like it may be, but who know. Enjoy!**

"Ok, but how exactly are we doing this?" I asked as we walked into the TARDIS. "I mean, we can't just outright accuse someone of being an alien? Can we?"

"Well=" The Doctor started, but went silent when Clara glared at him.

"Doctor, we're not accusing someone of being an alien." She warned him. "Did you forget what happened last time?"

"Ohh, what happened last time?" I asked, interested.

"We were visiting the 1980's and The Doctor here thought that someone was an alien when in, fact they were just dressed oddly. Needless to say, we spent the night in jail."

"Oi! He looked like an alien!" The Doctor said.

"Because that's how they dressed in the 80s!" Clara threw up her hands. I tried to hold back a giggle as I spoke.

"So, that would be a no on the accusing someone of being an alien then, right?" I asked

"Right." The Doctor said, pouting a bit after finally agreeing with Clara.

"That just leaves one problem." I said. "I could probably get in because I was one of the victims but how are you going to get in?"

"Ah, well that's where this comes in." The Doctor said, pulling something out of his jacket pocket. It turned out to be what he'd shown me the night before.

"A blank piece of paper?" I asked, confused.

"Psychic paper." He said. Noticing my confused expression, he continued. "It shows someone whatever I want them to see."

"Alrighty then." I said. The amount of odd things that were happening today was astounding. I looked down and noticed coffee stains all over my shirt. "I should probably change, but that would mean having to go back to the apartment. Unless you have a closet or something in here."

"Wlak down the stairs and turn left. There's a room filled with clothes." He chuckled at my astonished expression.

Shaking my head, I walked down the stairs and eventually located the room. "Filled with clothes" was right. There were so many clothes, even clothes from different time periods. I shook my head in disbelief as I ruffled through the clothes. I noticed some clothing that was in another rack and went over to investigate. Each piece of clothing looked like they had been worn. The weird thing was that there were random pieces. There was a purple and blue shirt, a reddish jacket, a black pinstriped pants suit, a red scarf, and a gray puffy vest. I wondered what they were all doing there and if they belonged to anyone. I eventually found a mint green sleeveless blouse, black pants, and a pair of purple flats and walked out.

"Oh good. You found something." Clara said, as I returned to the main area. "Took you a while."

"Well, that thing is huge." I said. The Doctor wasn't paying attention. He was running around the console pressing buttons. I wanted to ask him about the clothing, but something stopped me. I couldn't help but think that maybe there was a reason why they were there and it may have been a personal reason. As I was mulling over this, my phone rang. I took it out of my pocket, saw that it was Lexi, and answered it.

"Dude! What the heck happened?!" Lexi asked when I answered it.

'Well hello to you too." I said.

"Kelsey called and told me what happened. She said you told her that they were aliens?! How is that even possible?"

"It's a long story that I don't even think you'd be able to believe."

"But what happened?"

"Look, I'll try to explain later, but I have to go. We're going to the gallery and meeting with Martina. We just need to ask her a few questions." No way was I going to tell Lexi what we suspected. Even though she was my best friend, I honestly wasn't sure how she'd react if I told her about any of this at that moment.

"We? Who's we? Wait... Are you going with The Doctor and Clara? Tell me what's going on!"

"I'll tell you about it later! I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."

"Fine. But, I want details when I see you."

"Ok. I'll tell you all about it. I have to go now." I hung up.

"All set?" The Doctor asked, after I'd hung up.

"I guess so." I said.

The doctor pressed a few buttons and pulled a lever and I started hearing the same noise I'd heard the night before. At least I knew what it was now. A few seconds later, I heard the sound again. I assumed that meant that we'd landed. Suddenly, the realization that we were about to come face to face with a potential alien hit me and I started worrying. What if we couldn't stop them? What if we got killed, or worse. I tried to keep my emotions in check, but i wasn't doing a very good job at it. I'd always had a hard time hiding my emotions and today was no exception.


	10. Chapter 9

**So, took me a few days to write this chapter. I blame it on writer's block. But, with the help of watching some Doctor Who episodes, I managed to finish it tonight. Enjoy!**

I tried to breath in and out through my noise and mouth quietly to calm myself down, but it wasn't as quiet as I thought. The Doctor and Clara, who were both at the console, looked up at me. I stopped breathing in and out when I saw them staring at me.

"Whoops. Didn't think it was that loud." I mumbled, staring down at the ground, embarrassed. I thought that would be the end of it and that maybe we would walk out of there, but that was clearly not the case.

"What's wrong?" Clara asked, with a concerned look on her face.

"Nothing." I said. "I'm totally fine. I could tell that both of them didn't believe me, because The Doctor raised an eyebrow and looked at me with an odd expression, almost like he knew what I was worried about.

"Ok, fine." I sighed, finally breaking down. "I'm not ok. I mean maybe for you guys, this is normal. Ok, it is normal. But for me, this is the first time I've ever faced anything like this and I'm worried that something will happen. " I said, starting to tear up. Inwardly, I was cursing myself for crying. But like always, my emotions were getting the better of me.

"This is embarrassing." I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Sorry for probably making a bigger deal of it than it probably is."

There was silence for a while as I stood there awkwardly looking down at the floor, wondering what was going to happen. Then, The Doctor walked in front of me.

"Hey." He said gently, "Look at me." I looked up at him and he bent down a little bit, putting his hands on my shoulders, which was a little bit awkward considering the fact that I'm 5'2 and everyone else seems to be taller than I am, but I digress.

"I know you're afraid," he said, with what can really only be described as a sort of quiet compassion in his voice, "but I promise you, it's going to be ok. Whoever they are, and whatever they're doing, we will figure it out and we're going to stop them, ok?"

I'm not sure what it was, but if I didn't trust him completely before, I trusted him now. Maybe it was that I had no other choice. He seemed to know a lot. Granted, it was probably because he was an alien himself. Even though he didn't know what types of alien they were, He knew a lot more than I did. Or, maybe I trusted him because despite the fact that he looked and acted young, there was something in his eyes. Looking into them, it seemed like he'd seen so much. They seemed almost ancient, and also sad. Because of this, I felt very comforted.

"You're right." I said, nodding.

"Good!" He said, grinning. He patted my shoulder and twirled around. He walked to the doors and opened them. Clara and I followed him out. I noticed we'd landed in what seemed to be one of the hallways of the gallery.

"We might need to ask someone where her office is." Clara said. She turned to me. "Unless you know where it is."

"Don't look at me." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I've only interacted with her twice: Once on the phone and then here at the art show. Although, we could always ask someone." We walked down the hallway for a while until we found a security guard.

"Hello there!" The Doctor said, cheerfully to the guard. "We were wondering if you perhaps tell us where. Martina VanCamp's office is."

"Down the hallway, first door on the left." The security guard said. We waved at him as we walked down the hallway, finally finding it. We opened the two doors leading to the office and walked in.

"Excuse me?" I asked politely to the receptionist. "We were wondering if we could speak to Mrs. VanCamp.

The receptionist looked down at a calendar. "Of course. She's free right now. Who, May I ask would like to speak with her?"

"I'm Cat Barton. I was one of the artists at the art show. And these are, uh..."

"John Smith and Clara Oswald.. We're reporters from the Star, see?" The Doctor said, pulling out the psychic paper from his pocket and showing it to the receptionist. It must have worked because she smiled.

"Let me make sure that she'll see you." She said, getting up from her chair and walking into an inner room. A few seconds later, she returned.

"She'll see you now." She said "You can go in."

"Thanks." I said. We were ushered into the inner office. Martina was typing something on her computer and we waited until she was done. She looked up and smiled.

"Please, have a seat." She said. "What can I help you with?"


	11. Author's note 2

I know I haven't updated a chapter in months. I promise I have not abandoned this fanfic. I've just been busy with my job and life. You all know how it is. I will hopefully have a new chapter up soon. Thanks for understanding, and have a wonderful thanksgiving.


	12. Chapter 10

**I'm so so sorry I haven't published anything in over a year. Life got in the way. I promise ill**

**be better in publishing. Also, I have a new fanfic on the way as well, so**

**look for that. **

I cleared my throat. "Um well, as you know I was one of the artists at the art show that was attacked the other day." Martine nodded her head. "Ah yes. Of course I remember you. It's so terrible what happened." She said, taking a note of sincerity. However, underneath that note of sincerity, I could detect something that almost sounded like glee.

"Anyways," I continued, "I was just coming back to see if there was anything I could do to help clean up the gallery when I found these two." I pointed to The Doctor and Clara. "They're reporters from the Indianapolis Star and they wanted to get your take on the attack." I was honestly surprised that I came up with that that quickly.

"Of course." Martine said. "Ask away."

"Right. Of course." The Doctor said, and proceeded to ask some pretty impressive questions, considering the fact that from the short amount of time I knew him, he seemed to get distracted and excitable about everything. He asked her everything from her education to what she thought the gray women were. I wasn't sure how this would factor into finding out who they were, but I was trusting that we'd find out. I was also impressed at how she came up with the answers. However, she hesitated at some of the easy questions, like what year she graduated and what inspired her to work there. As for when she was asked for what caused the attack, she chalked it up to something in the food and drinks.

"I think that's all we need." Clara said, smiling as we got up. "Thank you for answering all of our questions. We should have this article up in a few days"

"That's wonderful." Martine said, shaking our hands. "I look forward to reading it." She turned to me. "I understand if you're not up to it, what with all that's happened, but we are having another show tomorrow. I understand that it's last minute, but I would love to have some of your work again."

I hesitated for a second, and looked at The Doctor, who gave me a tiny nod. "Of course I'd love to. I have a few pieces that I can send over. "

"Wonderful!" She exclaimed. "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night. Have a wonderful evening."

As we walked out, we happened to glimpse inside one more time and noticed a panicked expression on her face. She took out an odd looking speaker type thing and was talking in it frantically. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but from the way her lips were moving, she was speaking an odd language. From the expression on The Doctor's expression, I could tell that he knew who they were.


	13. Chapter 11

**Ok, redoing the rest of these chapters because there are no breaks. I apparently had forgotten how to fanfiction.**

"I know that look." Clara said, looking at him. "You know who they are."

The Doctor nodded his head. "I'm surprised I didn't figure it out before. I've dealt with her kind in a few of my previous incarnations.

" "Well that's good to know at least. Who are-" I started to say, then realized what he just said and stared at him. "Wait... I'm sorry. Did you say 'previous incarnations?'" I said incredulously.

The Doctor grinned and nodded, clearly enjoying where this was going. "But... What? Huh? I'm so confused!" I said, in a state of confusion.

"I have this little trick. When I'm dying, I can rewrite my biology. So instead of dying, I can change into a completely different person." He said, still clearly enjoying the surprised look on my face. "Bit of a tricky process, really."

"Well I mean, I guess it would be considering that you're literally changing your entire biology." I said, shaking my head.

"So where do they come from?" Clara asked, as we walked to the TARDIS.

"Well, if I'm right, they come from the planet Zuruka, which is a completely gray planet." The Doctor ran over to the console. I say ran, but it was really more like an awkward gallop of some kind. I didn't know how he walked without hurting himself. He was typing on the condos and mumbling to himself. A second later we heard a big "AHA!" from him and a literal 3D planet was projected from the console. It was gray, just like he said.

"Is that it?" Clara asked as we walked over to get a better look? "So what do they want with the paintings?"

"The colors." The doctor said. "The colors make them more powerful. They've tried to do this before, unsuccessfully." He added with a smirk.

"So that's why they were trying to steal the paintings. So they could become more powerful." I went pale. This was becoming far worse than I thought it was going to be.

Clara spoke up. "So then if they succeed in stealing the colors then that means..."

"They'll be at their most powerful to attack the whole world." The Doctor finished. They both had concerned expressions on their faces but I doubted that they were as concerned as I was. Clearly, they faced this type of stuff every day.

"Ok then." I said. "So what exactly are we going to do then?"

"Tonight, we're going to break into the building and find out their real plans." He said. We discussed our plan of attack. At least for tonight. This was apparently a 1 day at a time type of deal.

"I like the idea, but can you at least let me meet you guys there? Because I do have a roommate and I'm not exactly sure how she'd react if a big, blue box landed in our living room." I said, as The Doctor landed the TARDIS in the back alley of my apartment complex.

"Fine." He said, sighing.

"Ok, I guess I'll see you guys tonight." I said, walking out. I watched as the TARDIS dematerialized and walked to the apartment. I unlocked the door and was tackled by Lexi.

"I'm so glad you're ok!" She yelled as she squeezed me.

"Yes. I'm fine. But I won't be if you squeeze me to death." I said, trying to breath.

"Sorry." She said, letting go. "But I was so worried. After what happened last night and then what happened today, I was scared something happened to you."

"I'm fine. And I will also be fine once I do some investigating with Mr. smith and Clara."

"What?!" She asked.

"Ok, so I may have said I'd help investigate what happened with them. Oh, and I also decided to do another art show tomorrow. I'm just going to go take a nap now. Bye!" I said, quickly going to my room before she could berate me. I did fall asleep, at least for a little bit, and got yelled at by her, which I guess I couldn't blame her. She was concerned for my safety. But I eventually calmed her down and told her that I would be fine. And at the time, I was convinced that nothing else too earth shattering would happen, but again, I was wrong.


	14. Chapter 12

You know how you think you have the perfect plan, but then everything goes haywire? Yeah. That happened. It was all going so smoothly... Until it didn't. I was putting on my tennis shoes (because why should you have to sacrifice your feet all for the sake of a mission?) when all of a sudden I heard a vroop vroop sound, and then a second later a "WHAT THE H*!" from Lexi. "Oh for the love of everything." I muttered. I quickly ran out to the living room, almost tripping on my own feet.

Yup, there it was. The TARDIS. Right smack dab in the middle of the living room. I was mentally cursing The Doctor. I specifically told him that I wanted to drive there because I didn't want Lexi to freak out. Like she was doing right now.

"Uh, hey Lex." I said. She was staring at it in shock.

"What what is that and why is it in our living room?!" She squeaked. Suddenly, the door opened and and The Doctor popped his head out.

"I found the right place!" He called cheerfully to Clara, who had her arms crossed over her chest.

"Good. Now you can explain to Cat why you didn't want her to drive!" She said, glaring at him. Clearly, she was as miffed as I was.

Lexi was still staring as I walked in the TARDIS and it took off. I sighed. I was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

"See! It wasn't that bad." The Doctor said, grinning. At our glares, his smile faded.

"I told you I wanted to take my car and meet you there!" I said, exasperated. "Now I'm going to explain even more to Lexi and now I don't even know how she'll react!"

"I tried to stop him but he insisted." Clara said, smacking him on the back of the head.

"Oi! He said indignantly, rubbing the back of his head. "I only did it because I thought it would be a faster way to get there."

"Does he always just deviate from the plan?" I asked Clara.

"Uh huh." She said. "It gets pretty frustrating sometimes."

"I heard that." He said, walking away from console and opening the door.

"Good." Clara and I said at the same time as we walked out into the dark and empty gallery.

I shivered as we walked around. It was definitely more ominous walking around at night, than during the day.

"How are we going to find them? I asked The Doctor.

"With this." He replied, pulling out a silver, rectangular box with 3 prongs on the top. "It detects alien activity." He said, moving it around.

"Sure." I said, likeIt was sometime I saw every day. "So does this traveling around and fighting aliens thing ever get scary?" I whispered to Clara as we walked around, trying to find where the aliens would be.

"All the time." She replied. "But there's so much more than that. Being able to save the world or other worlds from alien attacks is what makes it worth it. Plus, seeing other worlds and going back in time is pretty cool." She said, grinning.

I could see what she meant, despite the creepiness of it all, there was something thrilling about looking for aliens. This was making me realize that I wanted adventure. Not like my life was boring, but since The Doctor and Clara had come into my life, I was beginning to realize that there was so much more out there and I wanted to experience it all. I realized just how much I wanted to experience it. I was almost hoping after all of this was over, that The Doctor would let me travel with him and Clara, but I didn't know just how to ask.

Finally, the machine in The Doctor's hand beeped when he moved it towards a vent.

"Found it!" He said, excitedly.

"So they're in the vents?" Clara asked, confused.

"Of course not!" He replied, impatiently. "They're in the room that the vent is leading to!"

"Are you saying we're going to have to go in the vent to hear what they're saying?" I asked, starting to get concerned.

Next to me, Clara was also starting to get concerned. "Doctor, are you sure that's the best idea?" She asked.

"Well, unless you want to be caught by them, I suggest we do it this way." He retorted.

"Fine."I sighed. "But I'm only doing this for the greater good." The Doctor aimed the sonic at the vent, and popped off the cover. "Can we all fit in there?" I asked, looking inside of it.

"It looks like a pretty good size." Clara said. "I think we can do it, but who's going to go in first?"

"I'll do it!" The Doctor said, waving his arms up and down. I wanted to laugh. For some reason, he reminded me of a little kid.

He climbed up in the vent, and we pushed his legs in as far as they could go. Which was no easy feat (no pun intended) considering the fact that he had long, gangly legs. "How is he not in a body cast by now." I whispered by Clara.

"I ask myself the same question all the time." She whispered back, shaking her head. "I'm surprised he doesn't injure himself all the time." I snorted silently.

After we pushed him in, Clara went in after, and then I followed. Luckily, it wasn't super high, so I could get in. All three of us managed to crawl through the vent.

"Well this is an experience." I grunted. "I always thought this happened in movies, never in real life."

"Oh, you get used to it." Clara said. "Especially when you're traveling with him."

Again, I felt the urge to travel. There was so much I wanted to see and I wondered if I would ever get to do that.

"We're here." The doctor said as we finally god to the other side.

"Finally." I muttered as we all crowded around the vent.

"Alright." The Doctor whispered. "Let's see what they've got for us."


	15. Chapter 13

From our view, we could see Martina (still in her human form) pacing around the room as the gray figures floated around the room. We were all silent as we heard them speak.

"You all have disappointed me." Martina said, in an angry voice. "You were supposed to have completed the mission by now." She said, glaring at them. From the way she was speaking, it definitely seemed like she was the leader.

"We tried, but we were stopped." One of the figures said in a scared voice. I would have felt sorry that they were being reprimanded if I didn't know they were planning on taking over the world. "A man scared us off with the screech from his pointy stick." The Doctor was about to protest when Clara gave him a look to be quiet and he sat back down.

"You must be more vigilant!" Martina said, suddenly changing her tone into a smoother one. "We only have one more chance to take over the earth. Tomorrow night at the art show. You must steal the colors from the paintings or else we are all in jeopardy."

Choruses of "We won't let you down." were heard and they flew off to who knows where. We all looked at each other and knew that unless something was done, earth would be screwed. We climbed wordlessly out of the vent and waited until we were all out to speak.

"Holy crap. You were right." I said, as The Doctor fixed the vent cover and we walked back to the TARDIS.

"I was afraid of that." The Doctor said gravely. "If they steal from the show tomorrow and get enough color, they won't stop until they've taken the color from everything."

I started trembling. This was definitely starting to become too much for me. I think The Doctor noticed this, because he walked over to me. "You know you don't have to do this, right?" He said to me gently, looking at me with those young, yet somehow ancient eyes. "Clara and I can handle it." Beside me, Clara nodded. I shook my head.

"No." I said, firmly. "I have to help. This is my planet. This is where I live and no alien is going to take over it." I said in a determined voice. Something had woken up inside of me. I wasn't just going go stand idly by and just let The Doctor and Clara do this on their own. Somehow I also knew that The Doctor knew this too. He was just letting me figure it out on my own.

When the TARDIS landed in my apartment, I peeked out of the door and walked out. I didn't see Lexi sitting on the couch until the TARDIS dematerialized and a light turned on. And there was Lexi, sitting on the couch with a slightly pissed off expression. "Uh, hey Lex." I said, nervously. "How was your night?"

"Don't 'Hey Lex' me." She said with a look. I saw a weird blue box materialize and then dematerialize in my living room. You're going to start telling me what's going on right now." I sighed.

"Are you sure you really want to know? You're not going to believe me."

"I just saw that box, at this point, nothing would surprise me." She said.

"Ok, fine. I'll tell you." So, I told her everything. From finding out what those gray creatures were, to finding out who The Doctor was, and then telling her what the aliens plans were. I could tell that at first she didn't believe me, but then her doubtful expression changed to one of surprise.

"So you mean the if these aliens take the color, it means the end of the world?" Lexi asked.

"Pretty much. "I said.

"So no pressure or anything." She replied.

"Nope." I said.

"This is all just so crazy." She said. "I mean, aliens actually exist."

"You're telling me." I said, shaking my head. "Honestly, if none of this had happened to me, I probably wouldn't have believed it. And now tomorrow night, we have to stop these aliens from taking all the color so that they don't take over the world." I sighed.

"You realize how insane you sound, right?" Lexi asked.

"Oh, trust me. I'm aware. Still trying to get over the fact that this is my life now." I said, lying back on the sofa.

"So wait. Just The Doctor is an alien, right? Not Clara?"

I nodded. "Yeah. He comes from a race called the Time Lords." I recalled that conversation. I also recalled the look of sadness that passed his face. There was something there, but I didn't want to pry.

After we'd both gone to bed, my mind kept going a mile a minute. I kept thinking about the chain of events. If I hadn't decided to go to art school and become an artist, then I wouldn't be in this situation. But then I thought that if it hadn't, I'd probably still be wanting that adventure.


	16. Chapter 14

The next night found me nervously getting ready for the art show. Yes, I was nervous. You'd be too if there was a possibility that your world would be taken over by gray alien women. I put on a dress and flats. If I was going to help save the world with The Doctor and Clara, I was going to look good. I walked out the same time as Lexi did. She was coming with me. After, spilling everything, I was half expecting her to not come with me, but she told me that no matter what, she'd be there to help in any way possible. We were quiet all the way there, both contemplating what would happen.

After I parked the car, we walked in and I gave the security guard my name. I saw Martina greeting everyone as they walked in. "I'm so glad you decided to display one of your pieces." She gushed to me.

"Well, thank you for having me again." I said, flashing her a fake smile. Inside I was telling her, "you're going down." We walked in to the gallery and despite the fact that things were going to go down, I couldn't help but notice so many amazing pieces of art. I felt they were all better than mine.

"Your art isn't that bad you know?" Lexi said, after she caught me looking around the other pieces.

"I just feel like there are so many better pieces here." I said. "I mean, mine just looks plain compared to everyone else's."

"Are you kidding?" Lexi said "The way you captured the sunrise. You literally made it look like an actual sunrise.

"She's right, you know." Said a voice behind us. We turned around to see The Doctor and Clara standing behind us.

"Wait. How did you guys get in here?" I asked, then noticed the psychic paper in The Doctor's hand. "Oh. Duh!."

"I'm kind of confused here." Lexi said. "How did they get in here?"

The Doctor held up the paper. "With this." He said.

"And that would be?" Lexi asked.

"It's psychic paper. Lets people see what I want them to see. This says that Clara and I are art critics." The Doctor chuckled at Lexi's wide eyed expression.

She quickly got ahold of herself. "Right. Of course it does." She said. She leaned over to me and whispered. "This is going to be a bit to get used to." "I'm still getting used to it." I whispered back.

To The Doctor I said, "You really think I'm that good?"

"Of course you are." He replied. "You may not be as good as Vincent Van Gogh, but you could get there. Now he was an interesting man to meet."

"Wait. You met Vincent Van Gogh?!" I asked, surprised.

He nodded. "It's a long story, but I believed we brought life into him... At least for a bit"

"You and Clara?" I asked.

Clara shook her head. "Not me." She said.

"Er, no." He said, "Another former companion of mine. Amy pond." He smiled at the memory, but there was definitely a touch of sadness in that smile and in his eyes. I wondered briefly what happened to her, but didn't ask. Some things were far too personal. I also wondered how many people who had traveled with him, besides Clara and that Amy person.

I shook myself out of my reverie. "Anyways." I said. "We should probably mingle a bit." We parted ways, at least for a bit and mingled with the other artists. There were a few people who looked at my art and commented on how great it was. I was smiling, but on the inside, I was wondering when the attack would happen.

Things were normal for such a long time that I was wondering if it was even going to happen when suddenly, the lights started flickering and the ground started to shake. Lexi and I looked at each other with frightened expressions, but said nothing. All of a sudden, the gray women flew through the walls and started flying around and harassing the frightened guests there. Screams could be heard as the guests tried to run, but the doors were locked. Lexi and I tried to find The Doctor and Clara, but in all the confusion weren't able to find them.

Suddenly, Martina appeared. "Oh thank god!" Someone said. "She can tell us what to do!" Martina grinned wickedly. "Of course I can." She said evilly. All of a sudden, she was enveloped in a swirl of whiteness that transformed her into a taller, gray version of her human form. Even more screams were heard as people tried to open the doors or break the Windows.

"This is bad. This is seriously bad." Lexi muttered.

"Oh really? Ya think!" I said sarcastically. "We have got to find The Doctor and Clara before it's too late." I said to her.

"There they are!" Lexi said, pointing to where they were running towards us. We started to meet up with them when a strong hand grabbed my arm.

"Oh, you won't be going anywhere except with me." Martina said, as she dragged me.

"LET GO OF ME!" I yelled, struggling. Lexi tried to grab my other arm, but she wasn't strong enough. I screamed as she dragged me to another door. I could hear Lexi, Clara, and The Doctor yelling after me, but then the door shut as she took me through a dark hallway. "What do you want from me anyways?" I asked, glaring at her.

"Only to keep you from destroying our plans". She said, as she continued dragging me.

"You realize that I do have friends who are going to find me, right?" I said.

"Where I'm taking you, they'll never find you." She said, cackling as she threw me in a room. She locked the door and I could still hear her cackling. What she didn't realize was that I had a phone with which to call my roommate and that I was also now friends with another certain alien in a bow tie that most likely knew how to destroy her kind.


	17. chapter 15

I groped around in the dark room trying to find a light switch. My hand eventually landed on one close to the wall. I turned it on and noticed a room full of art supplies. I didn't think anything of it as I grabbed my phone from my purse to call Lexi. It rang once before Lexi answered it.

"Where are you?" She asked, in lieu of a hello.

"I'm in some type of supply closet down that hallway." I said.

"Ok, we're on our way to find you. In the background, I could still hear screaming.

We hung up and I prayed that nothing too horrible was happening. A few minutes (or seconds later) I heard 3 pairs of feet running frantically and yells of "CAT!" "I'm in this room!" I yelled, banging on the door and also the walls.

"Hang on." The Doctor said. A second later I heard the screech of the sonic screwdriver (funny how that sound didn't faze me as much anymore) and the door unlocked and opened.

"Are you ok?!" Lexi asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said.

"So I think it's safe to say that they've figured out that we're trying to stop them." Clara said. "Right, Doctor?" She asked The Doctor, who didn't seem to be paying attention. He was looking around at the art supplies, furrowing his eyebrows, or what would be his eyebrows, if he had any. I'm still not certain if they were there, but I digress.

"Uh, Doctor?" I asked. He snapped out of his reverie.

"Right!" He said. "There's a small chance they do."

"A small chance?!" I exclaimed. "Martina freaking dragged me into another room and locked me in here! I'd say it's more than a small chance."

"Ok. So more than a small chance." The Doctor admitted. "But they may not exactly be aware that we know the full plan.

"Do they even know who you are? Wait, what are you again?" Lexi asked.

"Time lord." The Doctor supplied. "And they don't know now, but they will. Their species is also well adept at sensing alien species."

"But she didn't detect you when we went to see her yesterday." Clara said.

"That's because she was in a human form. They can only detect when they're in their true form." The Doctor replied, grinning.

"Well, that's a small relief." I said. "Now can we please get out of this room? I've been here far too long." We walked out of the room and silently walked back into the gallery, where it was still in utter chaos. The zurcoinians were flying around, but I had noticed that they were a little bit larger. "They're starting to steal the colors!" I hissed as we stood in the shadows.

Probably hissed it a little too loud because a second later Martina turned around from where she was directing her minions to go. Her eyes widened.

"Can't get rid of me." I said, smirking.

"How did you get out?!" She screeched so loudly that I could feel a breeze.

"That would be because of me." The Doctor said casually, leaning against the wall and twirling the sonic between his fingers. "Sorry to ruin your plans."

Martina narrowed her eyes at him. "Who are you?" She asked.

"Oh, I think you know." He replied in a very calm voice.

She narrowed her eyes even more until they were slits. "Oh, hello Doctor."

"And there it is." I whispered to Clara and Lexi, who both snorted.

"But you see, you're really too late. You won't be able to stop us this time. With all of these paintings at our disposal, we're too powerful even for you. Soon this earth will be ours."

"Ahh. That's where you're wrong. What you don't realize is that there's much more than you think on this planet and if you think that I will let you destroy it, then you're not as powerful as you think you are." The doctor said, still in the same calm voice. For some reason, that voice chilled me. I then realized it was almost like a quiet anger. Then it started to hit me, despite the fact that he seemed goofy and lighthearted, he hid the anger well. And the thing was, quiet anger was the worst because you never knew when it was going to come.

"You think you're going to stop us with just that sonic in your hand?" Martina said with a mirthless laugh. "You will never be able. Even now, my soldiers are becoming more powerful with the colors they consume."

From the corner of my eye, I saw one flying over to a girl and start strangling her. I quickly ran over to her, but it was too late. She'd already passed out. Or, I hoped she'd passed out. I ran back over. "Do you see what you're doing?" I cried. "You're putting others in danger just so you can have all the glory. You are so messed up."

"Thank you." Martina said. "If you can stop us, Doctor, go on and show us. I highly doubt that even you can stop us, seeing as you couldn't stop the time war from happening."

Time war? I was about to ask him what she meant when I saw Clara wince. I looked over at the Doctor, who had clinched his jaw and was glaring at her. Instinctively, I knew that something bad had happened in his past, but there was no time to ask. He came back to us and said quietly, "I'll be back." Then he bolted out of the room and into the hallway.

"I knew he was a coward." Martina said.

"He's not a coward and you know it." Clara said, glaring. "He's more of a fighter than you'll ever be."


	18. Chapter 16

Martina was distracted barking orders to her minions as The Doctor ran back in. He was carrying paints and paint brushes in each hand and had a huge blank canvas underneath his arm and had a huge grin on his face.

"Uh, Doctor? How are a canvas, paints, and paint brushes going to help with the situation?" Lexi asked what we were all thinking.

"What? Are we planning on using them as weapons?" I asked "because I don't think that will work."

"Here me out." He said. "If the earth is painted on the canvas, it will pull all of energy from the earth into this painting. They'll be drawn to it and if they receive all of the color and all of the energy, it will have the opposite effect and destroy them."

"Will it work?" I asked.

"It doesn't hurt to try." The doctor said.

"But who's going to paint it? Because I don't know anyone here who would be able to paint it except for Cat." Clara said.

"Me?!" I said, as they all looked af me. "Oh no." I said, shaking my head.

"But you're the only one of us who can paint." Lexi said.

"But I don't even know if I can do it. I mean, what if I mess something up? That could signal the end of the world." I said, nervously. It felt like too much pressure. Plus, I didn't feel like I was the artist everyone kept thinking I was. I was convinced I would screw something up.

The Doctor knew this, because he walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. "Hey. Look at me." He said, I was looking at the floor and forced myself to look up at his eyes. "I know you're scared, but you have to realize that you're much better than you think you are. You humans never realize how much potential you have. You are an amazing artist and I know you'll be able to get it right. I believe in you."

As I looked into those compassionate and ancient eyes, I suddenly realized what kind of man he was. He was a man who had seen so much in his who knows how long lifetime, including pain and suffering and yet, continued to save people and probably planets. You couldn't be that old and have seen that much and not have the urge to help. I suddenly felt myself wanting to cry for this amazing man, who was so kind. I knew that I had to do it. I nodded my head, determined. "Alright." I said, put the canvas, paints, and paintbrushes on the floor. I'll do it." The doctor set everything on the floor and I started painting. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but by the time I was done, I had a full painting of the earth, I even added a few other planets in there for good measure. My hands were covered in paint and I also had paint on my dress, but it was so worth it.

"Done." I said, holding it up.

"Perfect!" The doctor said.

"Let's hope this works." Clara whispered, as the Doctor straightened up his bow tie and took the painting from me. I nodded, hoping that I didn't do all the work for nothing.

The Doctor stood in the middle of the floor. "Hey!" He yelled, getting the attention of the aliens. "If you want the earth, you've got it!" He yelled, holding up the painting. All of them, including Martina, flew towards the painting. We watched as they stole the color. They were definitely getting larger and more colorful. For a few seconds, I thought that they would continue to get larger until they took over the whole room. They did grow even larger, but there was something wrong. They started to bloat. Martina realized what was going on and started screaming.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, DOCTOR!" She yelled as they all exploded in a boom of color.

The doctor looked a bit shocked. "I can't believe that worked." He said. Clara, Lexi, and I looked at his shocked expression and started laughing.

"I'm surprised it worked too." Clara said between laughs.

"Oi!" He said.

"Well, you have to admit that sometimes your plans go awry." She said.

"I have some good ones!" He protested.

We started on a fresh fit of giggles. It felt good to laugh. "I can't believe that even happened." I said. My whole life has changed in the matter of a few days and I wouldn't have it ang other way. Suddenly, we saw police coming in. After the police had come and taken our statements, Lexi and I noticed that The Doctor and Clara were gone.

"Should we look for them?" Lexi asked

"I think so, unless they left." I said, hoping that they didn't. We finally found them next to the TARDIS behind the gallery. "Hey! You didn't think that you'd just up and leave without saying goodbye to us." I said, half hoping The Doctor would ask me to travel with him and Clara.

"'Course not." He said. "Actually, we were wondering if you and Lexi wanted to come and travel with us." He said, grinning.

"Really?!" I said, my hopes up again.

"Yup." He grinned at my expression.

"Are you sure this is ok?" I asked Clara.

"I could always use another person to keep him on track." She said, earning a protest from him.

This was it. I could either go back to my normal life or take the chance of traveling to different worlds and time periods. I chose the latter. "Oh my gosh, yes!" I said. I looked at Lexi. "What about it?" I asked her.

"As much as I'd love that, I think I've had too many weird alien encounters to last a lifetime." She said. I hugged her and waved as I followed The Doctor and Clara, ready to start a new adventure.


	19. Chapter 17

1 year later

I woke up at sunrise and went jogging. I jogged up a hill overlooking the city and sat down, breathing in the cool, morning air. I was contemplating all that had happened the last year. When I agreed to travel with The Doctor and Clara, I didn't realize how much danger would be involved. Not that I had a problem with it, but after a few months of traveling, I realized I was homesick and missed the normalcy of life. It was a hard decision, but at the time I knew it was the right one for me. And everything did go back to normal, with the exception of a new job. After Martina "left", they needed someone to replace her. I think the reason they hired me was because no one wanted that job due to a few incidents, but I wasn't complaining. It was definitely a step in the right direction. But, despite all of that, there was still something missing in my life. I knew it was because I stopped traveling. I wanted to go back to it, but it's not like I knew how to contact The Doctor.

I sighed and stood up, ready to jog back down. As I got up, I thought I felt a shift in the air, I looked up, expecting to see dark clouds, but the sky was starting to turn a light blue and birds were chirping. Something big was coming, I just didn't know what. I shook it off and jogged back to the apartment, where I got ready for the day. I was in charge of my first art show that night, so I had to go there early to get everything set up. Lexi was coming with me because she was helping me, so we hopped in the car and I drove us to the gallery. Again, I wasn't aware of it yet, but something was about to turn my life upside down...again.

We got to the gallery and I gave my credentials to the security guard so he could let me in the room. All the time that I was directing and instructing people where to put the art pieces, I kept having this niggling feeling at the back of my head that something was going to happen. I tried to shake it off, but it was still there. Eventually, I just chalked it up to nerves and put it out of my mind. I got everything set up and everything went off without a hitch. Everyone was mingling and people were taking notice of the artists' works. Everything was going great... Until it wasn't.

It was in the middle of the show when it happened. I was talking to a few of the artists and guests when the lights started to flicker and the ground started to shake. I could see people start to bolt and some people screaming "earthquake!" But I knew this was no earth quake. You don't go through an alien attack or traveling with The Doctor to not realize that there are certain things that aren't what they seem. Lexi noticed my expression. "It's not an earthquake, is it?" She asked.

"Nope." I said grimly. Why did this always happen here. All of a sudden, the roof opened and Daleks came flying down.

"EXTERMINATE!" They yelled in a mechanical voice and started shooting at things, while people started screaming.

"What are they?!" Lexi asked, scared.

"Daleks." Me and another guy next to me, said.

"Wait. How do you know what daleks are?" I asked, the guy, surprised. He had slightly shaggy dark blond hair and hazel eyes, he was wearing jeans and was wearing a dark blazer over a white t-shirt. To be honest, he was pretty attractive, but I wasn't focusing on that. I was more surprised that someone other than I did knew what a dalek was.

"They attacked my hometown a couple of years ago. A man in a bow tie stopped them. He called himself the..."

"Doctor?!" I finished. He looked surprised.

"Yeah. How did you know."

"Because he came to stop an alien attack last year and I kinda traveled with him for a few months." I said.

"Ok, as much as I'm glad you two can share that in common, what exactly do they do?" Lexi asked. One of the daleks shot one of the people who had tried to push it over.

"That." I said, shaking my head in anger.

"Oh my gosh! That's horrible!" Lexi exclaimed.

"Daleks are awful." The guy said. I didn't even know what his name was. "We had to have a huge memorial service just for those people show who were killed by those little s*." He said, glaring at one.

As if responding to his glare, one of the Daleks started moving towards us. The three of us scooted back until it was right in front of me. It stuck its eyestalk out at me and seemed to scan me. "YOU ARE AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTORRR!"

It yelled in its mechanical voice. "YOU WILL TELL US WHERE HE ISSS!"

I glared at it. "Ok first of all, I don't travel with him anymore so I don't know where he is. You may want to check your facts there. "Second of all, do you really think I'd tell you where he was anyways?"

I was trying to be brave, but it was hard, especially since I was pretty much near death anyways.

"THEN THE THREE OF YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATEDDDD!" It yelled. It raised its whisk like arm and prepared to shoot us.

"This is it. We're dead." Lexi said, shaking. We closed our eyes, prepared to be shot when suddenly...

"Now is that really necessary?" A male voice with a Scottish accent spoke behind us.


End file.
